Relational databases were originally developed at a time when the speed of central processing units (“CPU”) were relatively slow, the amount of random access memory was relatively small, the size of hard disks was relatively small, but the speed at which hard disks was accessed was relatively fast. Interestingly, hardware advancements have now lead to a different paradigm, where CPUs are relatively fast, the amount of random access memory is relatively high, the size of hard disks is relatively large, but the speed at which hard disks are accessed is relatively slow. This new paradigm means that where large amounts of data are written in relatively small blocks across a large hard disk, the speed at which that data can be accessed is somewhat limited.